In general, sanitary masks are used to protect a person who is wearing the sanitary mask from hazardous environmental materials, such as dust at an industrial site or to protect the other objects other than the a person who is wearing the sanitary mask, such as food, from unsanitary substances provided from a human body at a food-related place requiring cleanness.
Most conventional sanitary masks include a mask body for covering a mouth and nose area and strings or loops for fixing the mask body on both sides to be elastically supported by the ears or the head.
Since the conventional sanitary mask contacts the face and directly covers the respiration organs, which include the mouth and nose, which may be also referred to as respiratory organs hereafter, when a person wears the sanitary mask, the person feels stuffy and uncomfortable in breathing and speaking. When the person is a woman, the sanitary mask may be stained with cosmetics such as lipstick, which is quite troublesome.
Due to such problems, people involving in handling or distributing food, who are necessarily required to manage sanitation to hygienically protect others, tend to evade wearing a sanitary mask and thus it is difficult to manage sanitation.
In order to resolve the problems, the inventor(s) of the present invention filed Korean Patent Application No. 10-2007-111003, which will be referred to as a preceding patent application, before the filing of the present patent application. According to the preceding patent application, as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, a sanitary mask 1 includes a body 10 and supporters 30. The body 10 includes a base unit 11 supported by the chin of a user, a screen unit 13 formed to be inclined upward under the respiratory organs from the base unit 11, and a frame sinew unit 17 supporting the screen unit 13 to be inclined. The supporters 30 are formed to be connected to both sides of the body 10 and fixed onto the ears or head of the user. The sanitary mask 1 blocks unsanitary substances provided by the respiratory organs from spreading to and contaminating the others or objects while exposing the mouth and nose of the user.
The sanitary mask of the preceding patent application, filed by the inventor(s) of the present invention, does not obstruct the breathing or speaking by having only the base unit 11 contact and support the chin of a user and having the frame sinew unit 17 support the screen unit 13 to be positioned apart under the respiratory organs, in order words, by not covering the mouth or nose.
Therefore, even with the sanitary mask 1, there is no inconvenience and even a woman wears the sanitary mask 1, the sanitary mask 1 is not stained with cosmetics such as lipstick. Also, since the screen unit 13 is formed to be inclined upward under the respiratory organ areas, unsanitary substances provided by the respiratory organs are kept away from spreading and falling down, and there is an advantage in that people involving in a place where sanitation for hygienically protecting other people is important, such as the kitchen or distribution of restaurant businesses, can easily provide sanitary food and service.
Despite the advantage, however, the preceding patent application, filed by the inventor(s) of the present invention, has an inconvenience in that the frame sinew unit 17 is needed to support the screen unit 13 to be inclined upward, because the body 10 of the sanitary mask 1 integrated with the screen unit 13 is formed of any one selected from the group consisting of fiber, nonwoven, paper, or a combination thereof.
The frame sinew unit 17 includes elastic wires which are formed of an instantly moldable material or resin, which means a material deformed as it is touched by hands, such as a band-type aluminum thin film, and maintaining the deformed state as long as further external force is not applied thereto. When the instantly moldable material is used, the shape of the screen unit 13 is readily distorted even by small external impact and the appearances are damaged. Also, since the screen unit 13 may stick to the respiratory organs as the screen unit 13 is distorted, the user has to take the screen unit 13 away from the respiratory organs with a hand, which is inconvenient.
When the user touches the screen unit 13 with a contaminated hand to restore the screen unit 13 into its original shape, the entire surface of the sanitary mask 1 may become dirty and in this case, the user has to replace the sanitary mask 1 with a new one.
Moreover, to put the frame sinew unit 17 into the body 10, the frame sinew unit 17 may be directly inserted into the inside of the body 10 which is formed in more than two folds or bonded with the body 10.
Furthermore, the sanitary mask 1 suggested in the preceding patent application filed by the inventor(s) of the present invention is a product for a one-time use and it cannot be re-used and a new sanitary mask 1 should be purchased whenever it needs to be used.